Get to Class on Time, or Else
by Waywatcher
Summary: Bernadetta isn't sure she should go to class. Byleth makes that choice for her.


**Disclaimer****: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.**

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The petite purple-haired girl paces back and forth in front of her door. "J-Just open the door Bernie. You can do it. Y-you have to get to class you know…"

Bernadetta doesn't have anything against school, really. In a lot of ways it's better than home. Learning is actually somewhat enjoyable, even if homework is a hassle. She's not like Linhardt who seems to actively dislike dealing with _any_ part of school. It's just... there are _people_ at class. Not specific people, just people in general. Bernadetta knows that if she sets a foot into that classroom, people are going to judge her.

Last time she went to class, Petra looked at her. It wasn't a normal look either! It was an "aha, I could easily _murder_ that girl" sort of look! She even said as much afterwards!

"I look like _prey_ remember? A rabbit!" Bernadetta whispers to herself. "Wh-What if I step in there and decides she's hungry? What if she wants rabbit!?"

Ooh, maybe she should just stay in her room. It's safe here. There's no one who can pull out a bow and shoot her in her head, or slide a knife between her ribs, or suddenly decide she looks very strangle-able.

"B-But Byle- _Professor Eisner_ will be disappointed." She tells herself. "You can't slip up like that Bernie. You remember the last time a student called him by his name, he _stared_… like, a _death stare_ of... _death_."

And that, in her mind, is infinitely worse than skipping class. She's also conveniently forgetting that Professor Byleth Eisner stares at everyone and everything _regardless_ of how someone addresses him, and that the "student" in question was Jeralt, Byleth's _father_, who had dropped in to watch his son teach on his spare time.

Bernadetta had missed that part. She'd been too busy hiding behind her books hoping the big scary mercenary didn't look her way.

The bell sounds, and Bernadetta startles away from the door as if it's somehow responsible. "Oh no, oh no, I c-can't go now. I'm late. The professor will be mad, and everyone would stare and think I'm worthless and-"

"We're going."

"Ack!" Bernadetta spins around, backs up, and falls against the wall while panting heavily. "Y-Y-You- h-how!?"

Byleth stares at her impassively. It's his usual expression, but to Bernadetta is looks like a glare of the most wrathful kind. "I used the back entrance."

"M-My room d-doesn't…" She looks behind him at her window, which is now open despite it being closed and locked a few minutes ago. "You came in through my _window_?!"

"Yes." The man turns to her desk, and calmly starts sorting through the things there to find her notebook for class. He scoops up the small black book along with her quill case, walks over to her, and places the two objects into her hands. "Hold these."

"U-Um- w-wait! I- aaaaAAAHHH!"

Byleth ignores the shrieking of his pupil as he promptly tosses her over his shoulder like a sack of grain, turns around, and steps out of her window like it's a normal thing to do. He casually shuts the windows and marches to class, ignoring the bug-eyed looks of the students in the area.

It's a surprise no one tries to stop him. From the outside it looks like an incredibly obvious kidnapping. However, refuge in audacity is once again on the teacher's side as everyone is too shocked by the sight to actually do anything about it.

Bernadetta is mortified. In her mind, she's being paraded out in front of all the other students in an intentional attempt to destroy any hopes she had of a social life (not that she ever intended to have a social life, but that's besides the point).

"_I'm worthless now!_" The girl cries in her mind. One hand clutches her things while the other desperately keeps her skirt pulled down to preserve her modesty. "_Unmarriageable!_ _I've never been so humiliated!_"

Byleth casually steps into the Black Eagle's classroom. Everyone chimes a greeting only for it to devolve into confused muttering a moment later.

"P-P-Professor!" Edelgard eventually sputters out. "What are you doing!?"

"Coming to class."

"I mean with Bernadetta!"

"Coming to class."

"_Why_ are you carrying her?"

"So she comes to class."

"Please tell me you didn't carry her like that the entire way."

"I did."

"Gods save us…" The princess mutters while massaging her forehead. She feels quite bad for the purple-haired girl.

Byleth calmly moves Bernadetta from his shoulder to a seat at the front of the class. The girl wishes more than anything she could just curl up in a ball and hide under her desk. Why couldn't he have put her at the _back_ of the class? At least everyone wouldn't be able to watch her all the time because they'd have to be looking forward.

"Bernadetta." Edelgard says softly. "What happened _exactly_?"

The girl shrinks in her seat. Edelgard is going to make her tell everyone? Expose her humiliation to the world?! She can't refuse the princess though, or she might be executed! "H-He came in through my w-window, grabbed me, a-and paraded me through the streets while coming here."

"Professor, do you seriously think that's an acceptable response to Bernadetta being late?" Edeldard asks firmly.

Byleth blinks at her. "Yes. I got her here. I don't see the problem."

Edelgard doesn't know what to say about that. The professor thinks breaking into his student's room and carrying her over his shoulder in an incredibly visible fashion is a perfectly reasonable response to her being late for class.

Byleth is an interesting person. He's incredibly smart, but also has the social awareness of your average brick wall. This isn't even the strangest thing he's done. Last week he couldn't find the stairs to the second floor of the doors, but he wanted to speak with Edalgard, so instead he just climbed the wall and came in through the window.

He has a thing for windows.

"Today I'll be introducing you all to the idea of guerrilla warfare." Byleth says calmly. He moves behind his desk, grabs something, and suddenly chucks it across the room. A wet sponge smacks a sleeping Linhardt in the face, effectively waking him up. Edelgard buries her face in her hands. Why does he keep a bucket of wet sponges under his desk? Why does this only happen to _her_ class? "It's the practice of using hit-and-run tactics, sabotage, ambushes, raids, and other such tactics to wear down an opponent gradually and disrupt their supply train and kill small groups of scouts. It is a strategy that relies heavily on stealth and scouting, but can allow a small group of soldiers to hamper and potentially deal massive damage to a force much larger than them without ever actually engaging that larger force."

At the very least his lessons are useful, or Edelgard would have asked for a new professor a long time ago.

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**This came to mind as I was playing through my first pathway (Silver Snow). Bernadetta ended up being one of my most powerful units (albeit a total glass cannon). She stood out more than any other character to me, mostly because of how over-the-top her personality was rather than her gameplay function to be honest.**


End file.
